The 1969 Comic Book Luncheon Photograph

I stumbled upon a minor treasure and it led me onward to a fabulous treasure.

Back in April at C2E2 I bought a 1966 Marvel comic that I got around to opening up and looking at just last week. (That's right! The comic is not a CGC-sealed comic. I do not now and never will own a single 'slabbed' comic book and I told why not over here.)

As I looked through the comic I was a bit startled to find the above newspaper clipping folded and inserted between two of the pages. The article is about a New York City gathering known as The 1969 Comic Art Convention which was masterminded by comics-retailing legend Phil Seuling. (That is Mr. Seuling himself in the checkered shirt above.)

No date appears on the clipping but  the reported convention took place in July of 1969. It seems to me that that get-together was the first-ever large-scale comic book convention, pre-dating the San Diego Comicon by a year.

I did a little more online digging and found this luncheon photograph that was taken at the Seuling convention:

If only I had the time I would think of some thesis to write about this fabulous picture. Dick Giordano is in there and Gil Kane too. So are Roy Thomas and John Buscema and Joe Sinnott and Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. That kid in the bottom right corner is Gary Groth!

I am not the only one who realizes what a wonderful time capsule of comics history this photograph is. A Master Key for the photo has been constructed and almost every individual appearing has been identified. See for yourself right over here. And enjoy!